Nikkei slips as U.S. air strikes stoke geopolitical concerns

* Investors take profits in recent gainers
* Market supported ahead of dividend record date
* Softbank extends fall after Alibaba's listing
* Line-related shares sink as IPO put off
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Japanese shares stepped back on
Wednesday, after U.S. air strikes in Syria dampened risk
sentiment and curbed the yen's fall - the main driver of the
market's rally in the past several weeks.
Returning from a market holiday on Tuesday, the Nikkei
average fell 0.1 percent to 16,192.02, slipping further
from a seven-year peak of 16,205.90 hit on last Friday.
"If geopolitical concerns deepen, you can't expect Japanese
markets alone to survive. The market could fall up to 10-15
percent at most," said Akiko Miyazaki, director of stocks at
Barclays.
Wall Street shares suffered broad losses on Tuesday as
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to continue the fight against
Islamic State militants following the first U.S.-led air strikes
targeting the group in Syria.
Still, the damage in Tokyo so far has been limited, compared
to the 1.4 percent fall in the S&P500 index in the past
two sessions, partly because of buying ahead of Thursday, which
is half-year dividend record date for many Japanese shares.
Investors took profits from recent gainers such as insurers
, seen as benefitting from higher bond yields, and
transport equipment makers, whose profits rise on a
weaker yen.
Insurers fell 1.3 percent, with Tokio Marine
falling 1.2 percent.
Among carmakers, Nissan motor Co fell 1.0 percent
while Honda Motor Co dropped 0.8 percent.
The yen rebounded to around 108.67 yen to the dollar,
off a six-year low of 109.46 yen hit on Friday.
Softbank, the largest shareholder of Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba, extended losses as Alibaba's
listing in the New York Stock Exchange on Friday triggered
profit-taking.
Shares of companies with business on the messaging app Line
suffered after South Korea-based Naver said on
Monday that it does not plan an initial public offering for Line
IPO-LINE.T this year, dashing market expectations for a deal
that one banking source has said could value the Japan-based
firm at $10 billion-$20 billion.
Adways fell 8.7 percent while Media Do.
The broader Topix fell 0.3 percent while the new
JPX-Nikkei Index 400 dipped 0.2 percent.
(Editing by Shri Navaratnam)